Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism Focus Brain: Are YOU Making Any Of These Mistakes?
Transcript
- 0:00You have arrived. Welcome to the Aspy world.
- 0:04Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
- 0:07an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
- 0:11spectrum, your autism ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
- 0:19So autism, focus brain, are you making these four mistakes?
- 0:23I'm getting into all that right now, guys.
- 0:25What's going on? I am super obsessed with trying
- 0:28to get like the most function out of my brain and out of like,
- 0:31you know, how do I get focused? How do I get motivated?
- 0:33How do I stay on track? All of these things encompass
- 0:36basically autism brain focus, right?
- 0:39And my name is Dan and I have autism and ADHDOCD and dyslexia.
- 0:43And I make weekly videos like this every week.
- 0:44So if you're near around here, anyone learn more, make sure to
- 0:46hit the subscribe button down below.
- 0:48And more importantly, I'm here to teach you guys and to tell
- 0:50you guys about four major factors that decrease your
- 0:54ability to focus. Now, we all know that autism and
- 0:58brain focus can be a difficulty. And why is this?
- 1:01Well, one of the main reasons is that autistic individuals
- 1:03usually have ADHD as well, right?
- 1:05So autistic people can hyper focus on a specific topic of
- 1:09interest or a specific thing, but then also they have a
- 1:12tendency to have a scatter mind where you might want to go to
- 1:16this project, that project, this project and you have a very
- 1:19different things. And So what we get is this kind
- 1:21of like battleground between the artistic brain running to focus
- 1:24and the ADHD brain wanting to just jump from task to task.
- 1:28Now what's really interesting is that the ADHD brain will also
- 1:30want to jump from task to task, but then focus on the new task,
- 1:34if that makes sense, which I find quite interesting, like not
- 1:37just interesting, like super interesting.
- 1:39Now I experienced this on a daily basis and for years I was
- 1:42like, OK, what am I doing? Like how do I, how do I
- 1:45manoeuvre through these, you know, times of navigation.
- 1:48Now I've done various videos on what happens when this moment
- 1:52occurs and it it's two parts really.
- 1:54One is that you have this moment of inertia.
- 1:57Now I spoke a lot about inertia. I've done many videos on I have
- 2:00more videos coming out on inertia, but very simply
- 2:04inertia. If we look at the the Newton's
- 2:06law of motion, inertia is an object in motion can't deviate
- 2:11from that or stop or the opposite, which is a object
- 2:16which is not in motion can't start motion or deviate from not
- 2:20being in motion. What on earth does that mean?
- 2:23If I break it down very simply is that you could be on a task
- 2:25doing something and if you want to switch task, you can't
- 2:29because this moment of inertia where you've got other tasks to
- 2:32do, but you've got this one task you're doing right now and
- 2:33you're like, I can't deviate from it.
- 2:35Or the other reason that a lot of people find this inertia
- 2:39problem is when they're wanting to start something, you sit
- 2:41there like this, like, OK, I've got all these things to do and
- 2:43they need to start all of them, but you can't start any of them.
- 2:46But you have this like this, this block.
- 2:48It's, it's almost like a writer's block feeling right,
- 2:49You know, So if anyone's like an artist or a musician or a writer
- 2:52or something, you get to this point where you're like, Oh, I,
- 2:55I want to start something, but, but I can't because it's, it's,
- 3:00I don't know. I've got the writer block thing,
- 3:01which is basically this inertia. And then the other type is
- 3:04pathological demand avoidance. Now, I've spoken a lot about
- 3:07pathological demand avoidance and it directly relates to the
- 3:11autism focus brain in the way that if somebody is asking or if
- 3:15something, it doesn't even have to be a person.
- 3:17It's not even asking tasks of you or demands of you as a
- 3:20person. It's basically if you have
- 3:22things to do. It could be the fact that you
- 3:24need to eat lunch, you need to take a shower, you need to tidy
- 3:28your office, you need to do all these things.
- 3:30And then something else happens where somebody's like, I need
- 3:32you to go to the post office and post something for me.
- 3:34It's like too many things. It's like this demand avoidance.
- 3:36So you have too many demands and then they'll just avoid you back
- 3:39out of it because you can't seem to manage each part of that.
- 3:42And it all comes down to this moment of admit pressure and the
- 3:46autism focus brain. Now, there are various things
- 3:48that we can do to overcome this, but there are also various
- 3:51mistakes that we need to kind of be aware of.
- 3:52Because if we're doing these mistakes and we're never going
- 3:54to be able to overcome the inertia.
- 3:56And if we don't overcome the inertia part, then we won't be
- 3:58able to overcome the the block or the issue, right?
- 4:03We're only able to increase our autism focus brain because we're
- 4:07kind of sitting there looking at a blank wall.
- 4:09Okay, so I'm going to go through them step by step and the first
- 4:12one is the lack of good sleep hygiene.
- 4:14Now sleep hygiene is really interesting because a lot of
- 4:16people don't get enough sleep anyway, right?
- 4:19I think the average, the average person in the world sleeps about
- 4:235 to 6 hours a night. We should be getting between
- 4:257:00 and 8:00 hours a night, right?
- 4:26And that's like optimum sleep. And why is this important is
- 4:28because it's allowing time for your cells to regenerate,
- 4:31allowing time for your body to rest and regenerate in your
- 4:34muscles and in your mind. Also, it allows for your your
- 4:38conscious mind to kind of just debrief a little bit.
- 4:40It's kind of like how dreams happen.
- 4:41You know, you're storing all of these things and then you're
- 4:43making up scenarios in your head about dreams, but you're storing
- 4:45all the thoughts from the day, which kind of gives you a little
- 4:48bit of a refresh or a defrag. Do you remember that from old
- 4:50computers defragged to my computer.
- 4:52It was just like, anyway, but the cool thing is if you have
- 4:56good sleep hygiene and you prioritize sleep hygiene so you
- 4:59have optimum sleep, then you'll be able to increase your focus
- 5:02when you're doing your waking hours, right?
- 5:04And there are many ways that we can increase sleep hygiene,
- 5:06like, you know, having a bedtime routine where we kind of like
- 5:09dim the lights, we have tea or something that calms you down.
- 5:13We have little to no screen time 20 minutes before going to bed.
- 5:18And when we do go to bed, that the area in which we sleep in is
- 5:22not triggering, It's not sensory kind of triggering and it's very
- 5:26calming. You know, it's, it's made to
- 5:27sleep in, not just like made to just, I don't know, have bright
- 5:31paintings in the wall, you know, something that's a calming
- 5:33environment that would be passing good sleep hygiene and
- 5:35making sure we get at least 7 hours of sleep in because 7
- 5:39hours of sleep is going to allow your brain to recharge, relax.
- 5:41So when you're during your week 4 hours, you'll have more like
- 5:45conscious energy to focus on those things, which again, when
- 5:48you think about pathological demand avoidance, if you haven't
- 5:51got the the head space to to prioritize the task, you're
- 5:55going to come to this moment of inertia.
- 5:56Super dope. OK, so #2 is lack of water
- 5:59intake. Oh my goodness.
- 6:00And that rise we go check more water.
- 6:03OK, so many people are dehydrated.
- 6:06Actually, I'd say most people are dehydrated.
- 6:08Why? Because we're never really told
- 6:11that water is like something that we should prioritize.
- 6:14And why is that? Because we have so many nice
- 6:15beverages we've got like coffee and, and soda and, and juices
- 6:18and stuff. And, and I get it, a lot of
- 6:20people don't even, you know, you'll have maybe a drink of
- 6:23coffee in the morning and then you won't drink anything then
- 6:25until lunchtime. But what we should be doing is
- 6:27we should be having regular intake of water because our
- 6:29brain is made-up of about 70% water, right?
- 6:32So if you're thinking about your brain needs water all the time,
- 6:35and if it's starved of water, it's dehydrated, it's not going
- 6:39to function at its optimum level.
- 6:40So you're not going to be able to focus and do those things
- 6:43that you need to do if your brain isn't engaging in the the
- 6:47right task because it hasn't got the right fluid in it.
- 6:50You know, you're, you're, you're feeding it with coffee and like,
- 6:53I don't know, fruit juice, but it's not, there are bits of
- 6:55water. Yeah, I get it.
- 6:55You know, it's water and everything, but that's not how
- 6:57we do it. So you need to make sure that
- 6:59you're drinking enough water during the day to stay hydrated,
- 7:01to keep your brain hydrated, to keep your mind sharp and
- 7:03focused. This is really key.
- 7:05This is like, I can't stress how important this is.
- 7:08It's so important that I have a rule that every time I look at
- 7:11my water bottle, I have to take a drink because otherwise I'll
- 7:14forget. So always make sure my water
- 7:15bottle is insight right, which is very important.
- 7:18So hydrate yourself. This is a must, a priority.
- 7:22OK #3 is lack of list building. Oh my goodness.
- 7:25Like I love lists building because when you build lists,
- 7:28and it's not like having one of the biggest pitfalls of autistic
- 7:31individuals is we'll have A to do list of to do lists and then
- 7:35a stack of to do lists that we never get round to doing because
- 7:37we have this moment of inertia. We can make to do lists.
- 7:39It's all accounts of them. We have no idea how to execute
- 7:41them and how to stay on top of all the to do lists that we've
- 7:44created or we've made because we're in this kind of rut of
- 7:47inertia, right? However, there is a strategy to
- 7:50overcome this and how to actually write To Do List in a
- 7:52way where actually work for you. Now, the first thing to do is
- 7:55you write down a list of all of the things that you need to do,
- 7:58right? So I don't know, you could like
- 7:59just start today. We'll go, OK, today, it's
- 8:02Thursday. They have to write down a bunch
- 8:03of stuff. Do do, do, do, do, do all of
- 8:06those say there's 10 things on this list, right?
- 8:08One of the things you'll notice as well is that your To Do List
- 8:10or your mental To Do List isn't, is anywhere near as big as your
- 8:13actual To Do List because like you're, you have all the stuff
- 8:17going on in your head. That seems huge when you
- 8:18actually write it down on paper, you've got like 10 things.
- 8:20Maybe you might only have 5 things.
- 8:22And then you look at that and you say, OK, which one of those
- 8:25things should take priority? And how do I know this?
- 8:27How do I know which one takes priority?
- 8:28Well, it's the thing that if I do that thing or if that thing
- 8:30is completed first, that's going to give me the most relief
- 8:34straight away. So if you're like, oh, I need to
- 8:38buy a new car. OK, how do you buy a new car?
- 8:40Well, I need to save up for a new car because a car will get
- 8:43me to work and it'll be a lot of stress alleviating for me
- 8:45because I want to pay for taxis and buses and stuff.
- 8:47So OK, that's primacy #1 So you put it onto another list.
- 8:49OK, buy a car. Boom.
- 8:51So we've got buy a car. What are the steps taken?
- 8:53This is how we do it. We take the to do item and then
- 8:55we write down a list of steps that we need to take to increase
- 8:57ourselves towards that potential of completing that task, which
- 9:00is basically like saying what are the steps we need to do to
- 9:03get that done. First thing is I need to book
- 9:05extra hours on work or I need to do a garage sale or sell some
- 9:09stuff on eBay to gain a little bit more capital so that I have
- 9:12money to put a down payment on a car.
- 9:14Then the next thing I do is I look for cars online, look for
- 9:19car dealers and look at which ones sue me.
- 9:22Then I book a dealership visit. Then I go look at the cars.
- 9:25Then I put the down payment on it so I'll the insurance, take
- 9:27the car home. That's how you do list building
- 9:29and that's how you complete tasks on the list.
- 9:31Nobody does it this way and that's how you do it.
- 9:33If you do that every single time you need to do something, you'll
- 9:36beam like the sun Effective. OK #4 is probably the most
- 9:43impactful one for me. This is this is this is me in a
- 9:46nutshell. This is called doom scrolling,
- 9:48right? So we're, we're all doing it
- 9:49right. We're just sitting down.
- 9:50We've finished eating our dinner.
- 9:51We're just like, you know, going through Instagram and just
- 9:53scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. We're just aimlessly scrolling
- 9:56on Instagram. Well, what does this do?
- 9:58This actually causes a, a mental blockade in, in our life, right?
- 10:03Where, where, where rather than focusing on something that's
- 10:05important, we're focusing on something that is completely
- 10:07irrelevant. We're just scrolling on
- 10:08Instagram. We're looking at like pictures
- 10:10of cats and dogs and people's sandwiches.
- 10:12It's like, what, what are we doing?
- 10:14Like those things aren't good. They're we're focusing, we're
- 10:17putting focused energy on something that does not improve
- 10:20our life or condition towards our potential, right?
- 10:22Which is basically saying we're wasting our time and people do
- 10:25this all the time and the term is doom scrolling.
- 10:28We call it doom scrolling because basically most of the
- 10:30time you'll be scrolling past and be sucked in stuff that's
- 10:32negative right. So what I tried to do is that I
- 10:35replaced doom scrolling with an app called deep stash and a deep
- 10:41stash is a really interesting app.
- 10:42This is not sponsored or anything, I'm just telling you
- 10:44which ones I use. Basically it just you type in
- 10:47what you like or podcasters into what books you like and it gives
- 10:49you little quotes from them every single day and you can
- 10:51just go through and check them out.
- 10:52So if you want to scroll on something, scroll on something
- 10:54that's going to give you some potential, Scroll on something
- 10:57that's going to urge you towards learning because that is how we
- 11:00do it. Buy an audio, but buy an e-book
- 11:03or something like that way you can scroll through something on
- 11:06your phone. You get that pleasure of
- 11:08scrolling on your phone, but it's actually increasing your
- 11:09potential towards learning something because when we learn,
- 11:12when we read, when we understand, when we're not just
- 11:14doom scrolling, our mind expands, which means that gives
- 11:16us more space. It it increases our potential to
- 11:19being able to focus, being able to do all those things.
- 11:22That being said, if you have anything to add, pop in a
- 11:24comment down below and I'll see you next time guys, peace.
- 11:26Hey guys, thank you so much for checking out this podcast.
- 11:28Make sure you are subscribed because there are people
- 11:30listening right now who are not subscribed to this podcast.
- 11:32I can see you make sure you subscribe.
- 11:35OK guys, see you in the next one.
- 11:36Peace.